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Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Looking For Answers; Reynosa

Borderland Beat has covered the violence and chaos that erupted in Reynosa this past weekend that was precipitated by a government operation to "take down" an alleged drug kingpin. That individual, Cheoflas Martinez, is not exactly a major organized crime figure.

Alejandro Hope* (see resume following the story), a well respected and leading analyst and thinker on Mexican politics and the Mexican drug wars, has given BB permission to republish today's issue of Silver and Lead wherein he asks the question WHY all this violence occurred and gives his views

Fire on the border. This weekend, a furious and prolonged shootout erupted in the border city of Reynosa,
leaving at least nine people dead. The cause: an operation to capture a
kingpin, who, of all places, was watching horse races in Mexico City
while the battle raged (he was detained in the nation’s capital the next
day). This individual, Cleofas Martínez, is not exactly a major
organized crime figure. He is the head of a faction of what was once the
Gulf Cartel (CDG) and his crew has been fighting other similar gangs
for control of drug routes and extortion rights in Reynosa. Yet an attempt to detain him was enough to produce chaos in a city of 600 thousand inhabitants. Why?

The authorities are stuck on the kingpin strategy.
The successor gangs of the CDG or the Zetas are small enough to try to
dismantle them whole in one fell swoop, not just cut their head. But
that requires a more patient and intelligence-heavy approach than a
straight kingpin takedown. Since the capabilities of Mexican agencies
are not quite there, they do what they have learned to do (capturing
individual capos), even if that creates battle scenes in urban areas.

Mexican
agencies should know by now that trying to take down a kingpin in
Tamaulipas leads to a) prolonged shootouts and b) blockades.
The same thing has happened time and time again. But still there were no
visible preventive measures (such as readying tow trucks to quickly
remove blockades). Somehow there is very little institutional learning
in Mexican security agencies.

Tamaulipas has not developed law enforcement institutions that can provide a modicum of peace and order. So the job falls on the armed forces, who tend to be heavy-handed in their dealings with organized crime.

Fragmentation has yet to run its course in Tamaulipas. No
single gang is dominant in the state and no one seems able to impose
some order in the criminal underworld. That creates an opening for hyper
violent local criminals with very short time horizons.

Bottom line.
This is not the first time that gun battles have erupted in the border
towns of Tamaulipas. It will certainly not be the last time either. Expect disorder to continue in that troubled state for a long time to come.

This and that

Tapping the pipelines. One would have thought that low oil prices would have created a disincentive for fuel theft. One would be wrong. Details here.The interactive sectionYou have some security-related information you want to share with us?
Send it to ahope@eldailypost.com

*Alejandro Hope is on the Board of Directors of Insight Crime and Director of Security at the Instituto Mexicano para La Competitividad
(IMCO). Prior to his current position, Hope served various management
positions at the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN)
between 2008 and 2011. Between 2001 and 2008, he worked as a consulting
partner at Group of Economists and Associates (GEA), a consulting firm
specializing in economic and political analysis. He has a degree in
Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Ph.D.
candidate in the same subject.

33 comments:

As far as fragmentation, Tamulipas is so sparcely populated and geographically spread out, and oddly shaped that no one gang has been able to exercise full control of its routes and plazas since zetas worked for Gulf Cartel and Cardenas was at the helm. I don't see any one gang getting full state control anytime soon as the trend since 2008/2009 has been smaller groups that don't stand on a national level and rank lower on DEA radar. Thanks Mr. Hope for allowing reprint on behalf of BB reader!

it all starts and ends with the Mexican Government. A lot of Mexican People have stood up to the Cartels and put those Cartels in the dirt only to be stopped by the Mexican Government who suppresses its own people. The Mexican Government has to be Vetted out and maybe then something can be done to make Mexico a better place for its people which it 100% deserves. viva Mexico!

The corrupt politicians/officials/officers in the mexican government have created the cartels to enrich themselves. The billions(!) paid each year in bribes go directly into their pockets. The crime groups themselves (the cartels) are poor soldiers being sacrificed by the government officials on top.

Leyzaola put it right: "Organized crime can only exist with the complicity of the government". This is true for any place/country on earth: Mexico, US, Nigeria, Japan, Burundi etc.

No it starts in the Andes and ends in American citizens crack pipes, veins, and nostrils. Your living in a bubble - open your eyes to the big picture reality of the supply and demand chain that the American consumer drives!

If it starts and ends with Mexican Government how do you explain the thousands of guns that the US Attorney General allowed to be illegally purchased and sold in Mexico for millions in profit. Even a 50 caliber found where Chapo was hiding was allowed to be purchased and illegally imported to Mexico. USA isn't some innocent neighbor that isn't bennifiting just as much as the blood thirsty cartels.

7:41pm; I understand it's easier for you to bury your head in sand as Americans have tended to do through many gun running scandals, democratically elected government overthrows, opium and cocaine smuggling and the list goes on. All along the US border from TJ to Matamoros US citizens, their politicians and local Sherrif and police are actively benefiting from the economic stimulus that gun smuggling provides. The second generation gun store in my Az town has built a 100k entrance to his ranch, built several 100 thou in stables, new trucks and trailers, etc and the police chief, mayor and other corrupt participants drive past my home and into his ranch regularly. I've called ATF and FBI since I learned about the gun sales operation in 2010 but it is no priority. The US is actively and knowingly allowing guns to be smuggled into Mexico that TERRORIZE innocent people and force them to live in fear. SHAME!!!

@7:01we have guns in the US too. but at the end of the day people kill people. a gun can not pull its own trigger . its very simple. the mexican government gives these cartels free rein as long as the cartels pay the bribes and those same out of control cartel members who have free rein are the ones who shoot people with guns. which is sick. but they pay to have free rein of an area and so the government does little to nothing. out of control people kill other people. guns are only a tool. stop blaming the US. cartel members make the decision to pull the trigger.

7:49 col leyzaola blames LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, and municipal and state police department elements not chosen by him to help him "clean up" for the federally sponsored narco chilangos to come and take over with their own people...--Back in the 70's the DFS did the same thing all over mexico to fight the revolutionary communist guerrillas, the military intelligence and federal government created out of high school and preparatorias y universidades to murder them...--Jefe del PRD "el tragabalas" Jesus Zambrano was one of them with the liga comunista 23 de septiembre, but "la fabis" made friends with him, they still are boyfriends.--Now the rabble are just branded narcos and murdered...Leyzaola walks slower now, God punished his ass...

7:01 the US has been exporting guns, military training and death squads to all of LatinAmerica since the 50's, United Fruit at the vanguard of operations with their white guards and money to create the CIA...--THAT WAS BEFORE NIXXON GOT PELTED BY EGGS IN GUATEMALA POR CULERO...

Because there is no oil or a corrupt border there, not much happens there there, everybody pays the federal de caminos y al ejercito y las marinas por la güena y no problema...--The report is "sin novedá 24/7 jefe"...

1:42 maybe, but it did not happen without the help of "governor Capulina" newly millionaire rag picker Cesar Duarte, after courting and collecting a few million dollars from CDS for his i itial courtesies...--Just another dog biting the hand that fed his ass, CDS & GN.

... Family Is More Important Than Reporting/Blogging As Some People "Unfortunately" Have Found Out/Learned ... Remember The Old Saying, "Snitches Get Stitches"? ... Now Day's In Mexico You & The Family Get Bullets, Made Into Pozolé Or Chainsawed Up And The Only Stitches Given Out Will Be From The Mortition At The Funeral Home For Reporting/Blogging About The Wrong Info/Person ... Can You Imagine Being Told That Your Entire Family Will Be Killed, So There Is No More Blood Line If You Keep Reporting/Blogging ... Or Told That They Will Not Kill You This Time, But Pick Out A Family Member To Be Killed In Front Of Your Family Now For Reporting/Blogging ... Would You Report/Blog? ... Not Me ... "Scary Sh!t"

Heheheee, "alejandro hope" would be affraid of me, but you?, where is the integrity? --Politics lends its colours to everything, from politics of hunger to politics of extermination, education, exploitation, cover ups, corruption, and drug policy, among others...--it is so big that no amount of cover up will be enough...--Patriotismo will not cover up or fix anything either, just make a slow death slower, if lucky...